DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Andrew Jackson once said:

“I have always been proud of my race, and rejoice that I am so nearly allied to a country which has so much to recommend it to the good wishes of the world…Irishmen have never been backward in giving their support to the cause of Liberty.”

Don Timoteo Murphy of County Wexford, received a land grant near San Rafael in California. Later he was Alcalde of San Rafael.

Edward Kavanagh is Acting Governor of Maine.

Alex MacComb was Commanding General of the United States Army.

Scotsman James Neilson patents his hot blast furnace.

1829 Catholic Emancipation, Catholics are granted the right to sit in Parliament and to be eligible for all civic and military positions. O’Connell is called “The Liberator”, and forms a voting bloc in Parliament which holds the balance of power between the Whigs and Tories.

William Louis Sharkey, a second generation Irishman, was elected Speaker of the House of the Mississippi Legislature.

1830 During the decade 237,000 Irish immigrants come to the United States.

A 400 mile trail which began in Saint John, New Brunswick and ended in Boston, Massachusetts was called the “Irish Trail.”

In the early years of Irish immigration, the Irish not wanting the loneliness of the frontier and unable to farm for a lack of money to get started, began to crowd the port cities of the American coast from Newfoundland to Georgia. The labor intensive jobs in these areas were dominated by the Irish. A number of colonization projects were begun to relieve communities of the taxing problems caused by the Irish crowding into their communities, the plan was to move many of the Irish away from the Eastern seaboard to the interior of America these projects resulted in the following towns being developed: “The Barrens” near Marshall, Illinois; Armagh, Missouri; Downpatrick, Missouri; Byrnesville, Missouri; Belfort, New York; Clayton, New York; Benedicta, Maine; Pompey, New York; Gary Owen, Iowa; Wexford, Iowa.

Like the Cumberland Valley in the American Colonies before it, an area of New Brunswick began to become a gathering place of Irish so quickly that they were the dominant settlers. The area was known as Miramichi located in what is now Northumberland County, New Brunswick off the Miramichi River which feeds into Miramichi Bay. One of the early towns was Williamstown, previously known as “Irish Settlement.” Just as the Irish inhabitants of the Cumberland Valley overflowed and settled the Shenandoah Valley and then began the walk along the Natchez Trace, so, too, did the Irish of Miramichi leave their valley to settle other areas. The main skill and industry of these men was lumbering. A skill they took with them to begin settlements in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Maine. Still later descendants of these families moved to the forests of the Pacific Northwest and to Alaska. Fishing and farming were also important industries of Miramichi.

1831 Saint Mary’s Church in an Irish neighborhood of New York City is set a fire and burned down.

Gerard C. Brandon, born in Ireland, was Governor of Mississippi, later he was the Chief Justice of Mississippi(1833).

1832 O’Connell announced his intention to work for the repeal of the Act of Union, and of restoring Ireland’s autonomy in legislative matters.

1833 Louis McLane is Secretary of State, he served earlier, in 1831 as Secretary of the Treasury.

The Governor of Maine is a Dunlop from Ireland.

1834 Ursuline Convent burned down in Charlestown, Massachusetts by an anti-Catholic mob.

Charles O’Malley, a fur trader on Mackinac Island in Michigan, promoted a large scale immigration of Irish from his native Mayo County to Michigan. Four counties of Michigan have Irish names: Antrim, Clare, Roscommon, Wexford, and Emmet named after the Irish patriot.

Cyrus McCormick, of Irish ancestry, received a patent for his reaper, by 1858 he is a millionaire ten times over. He becomes the biggest landlord in Chicago with his investments. His company becomes the International Harvester Company in 1902. Today that company is known as Navistar.

1835 O’Connell makes a deal with the Whigs called “The Litchfield Compact” whereby he and his bloc will support the Whigs and keep them in control of the Government in return for favorable legislation for Ireland.

Benjamin F. Butler is the United States Secretary of War.

Irish born Gerard C. Brandon is elected Governor of Tennessee.

1836 Thomas Drummond, Whig Chief Secretary, ordered a more impartial administration of justice in Ireland.

The Irish Constabulary, a national police force, is established.

The Battle of San Jacinto, with Irishman Sam Houston as the Texan commander, the battle leads to the establishment of the Republic of Texas.

Mrs. Eaton, the former Peggy O’Neal, and another Irisher, Andrew Jackson helped elect Martin Van Buren President of the United States.

The first McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers are published, they were written by William Holmes McGuffey.

William Lyon MacKenzie led a rebellion in Upper Canada to get the British out. They asked for U.S. help, this led to the “Caroline” affair where the United States and England very nearly went to war.

General Hugh Brady was the U.S. General in charge of the ground troops in the area.

1838 More beneficial legislation for Ireland, when requirements of the Tithe Act are reduced, and the Poor Act was enacted which regulated relief for the indigent.

1839 Rebecca riots in Wales.

1840 In this decade 800,000 Irish immigrants came to the United States John Tyler is President, John C. Calhoun is again Secretary of State (after Upshur).

1841 The Tories were elected into the Government, O’Connell decides to push for repeal of the Act of Union, but his election as Lord Mayor of Dublin delays his action.

Benjamin Fitzpatrick was Governor of Alabama. He became U.S. Senator in 1848.

1842 The newspaper, The Nation, is founded by Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy. It became the voice of a new movement, Young Ireland.

Lola Montez, whose real name was Maria Delores Elizarosana Gilbert was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1818. She became famous as a Spanish Dancer . She moved in high circles, she was a close friend of Czar Nicholas, Franz Liszt, Balzac, and Alexander Dumas. She was a mistress to Ludwig the First of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld, and later, Baroness Rosenthal. Lola Montez was said to be the most powerful woman in Germany in the 1840’s. She caught gold fever and went to California where her fame followed her. Her last days were in New York City, where she was a friend of New York society.

Rebecca riots again in Wales.

1843 O’Connell staged “monster meetings”, political rallies showing public support of the repeal of the Act of Union. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel declared his willingness to accept civil war, rather than to accept repeal. He bans the monster meetings. Although O’Connell called off the first meeting planned after the ban, at Clartarf, he had O’Connell arrested for conspiracy.

1844 O’Connell was tried and sentenced to one year in prison, but was released by an appeal from the House of Lords. The Repeal Movement was effected by these events and began to unravel.

Riots in Philadelphia because Bishop Francis P. Kenrock, originally from Dublin, obtained approval for Catholic children to use the Douay version of the bible in school. A mob moves into the Irish neighborhood of Kensington. Forty people are killed, sixty wounded.

Anti-Catholic riots in Philadelphia, Irish neighborhoods are attacked. Thirty people are killed, 150 wounded. Anti-Irish nativism has caused other violence in the past seven years from Boston to New York.

Irishman James K. Polk elected President of the United States. James Buchanan is Secretary of State.

Polk in a speech stated:

All my sympathies are with the oppressed and suffering people of Ireland … I sincerely wish the Irish Patriots success.

Benton, Wisconsin founded by Dennis Murphy of Wexford.

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